Chapter 12: 2 Weeks in Review & A Radical Plan

Posted by admin on April 2nd, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Like the new logo? My friend Tommy Wolfe did it for me.  I love it.

I will be playing my first gig with an electric band in almost 2 years next Saturday.  As most of you know, I have been playing solo acoustically for the past two years, and to say that I am excited for this up coming gig would be the understatement of the century.

I’m going to share with you all, because I promised to be as transparent as possible about the steps I’m taking to achieve my goals, a thing that the coaching firm I work for introduced me to called a “Radical Plan.” (for those of you who don’t know I also work for a remarkable personal and corporate coaching and consulting firm called the Handel Group.)

Now, a “radical plan” is a set of goals that are just as the title says: “radical.”  I define radical as something  that is only achievable if you work your fucking ass off.  The art of a radical plan is that it is 6 weeks long.  A month is too short, and 2 months is a bit too long to play this game full out.  So here’s my radical plan in terms of my business for the next 6 weeks as well as details as to why each item is on my plan:

• -Booked at 5 more venues by May 14th (I am planning a fall tour with my electric band, and right now, since we just got started again, we want to get our feet wet, and generate some press etc playing at some nice clubs in the NYC and the surrounding areas all summer long.  Plus, there is nothing that I love more than playing live shows!)

• -Have at least 20% of every audience we play in front of buy merchandise and find a way to calculate that percentage.  (20% is a great goal.  Audiences purchase things based on how touched they are by your performance.  If 20% actually buy something, then it means that about 80-90 percent loved the show.)

• -Get at least 65 people in the door to Sullivan Hall on April 29th (This is the first time I’ve ever played this venue, this is not a huge number of people compared to other places I’ve played, but it would be a good success for a first time at a new venue)

• -Arrange Big Bear with my electric band (We haven’t put this song in the set yet because it’s so complicated)

• -Set up my new CD for digital distribution (While it’s available on my website, still not yet on itunes)

• -Get Featured on at least 3 more blogs, blog talk radio shows, internet radio stations etc. (self explanatory)

• -Generate some hot leads (people interested or relationships that could go somewhere) for booking agents and managers (I am in the process of finding a new manager and booking agent as I have been doing it all myself the past two years, (I had a manager before that) and need some help with some of the business aspects so that I can focus more on the music aspects of the business)

• -Write up a up new business plan (now that I have people working for me, I need to write up a new business plan)

• -Hire at least one more, if not two more summer interns (the amount of work it takes to plan, promote, execute and run this business continues to grow every week.  I have a lot of knowledge to teach people, and I need to the extra help of more summer interns as well.)

I share all this with you because I promised you that I would be transparent and share the steps that I take on a regular basis to becoming a world renowned artist.   These are the kinds of things that I do on a regular basis (goal setting, etc.) that will help me achieve my goals.

Happy Spring!

Chapter 10: What I’m Learning from Tom Jackson

Posted by admin on March 23rd, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Tom Jackson separates the reason that we (musicians and music lovers) do music into 4 “M’s.”

The Music       The Message       The Money       The Me

I’m going to talk about the “Me” because I’ve always had an issue with the “me.” A part of me has always felt like it’s self indulgent to be a musician or an artist. Like “who am I to think that I can/should/deserve to do this?” Anybody else ever feel like that?

Well, what Tom said is that the “me” could either one of two things. The first “me” is the “ME…” the look at “ME.” The “ME is performing so clap for ME.” We all hate this “me,” and this is not the “me” that he speaks about. The “me” that he speaks about is the “me” that has always known, that has always felt that I am here to do this…that my love for music is so deep it must be my calling and in order to honor the gifts that I was given by the Universe, or God if you don’t have a problem with that word, then I have to DO SOMETHING about it!

I used to think that I was selfish for thinking that I could be a world-renowned musician because I thought that everybody’s dream was to be some kind of performer if they really could choose anything. Wrong.

When lived in Colorado, I met a guy who told me his dream in life was to climb the 7 highest peaks in the world, and that he had already tackled 4 of them, K2 included. I thought about the fact that this dream was the apotheosis of what he thought was dream worthy…his ultimate goal in life, to climb all 7 peaks.

Now, I would never want to do that. I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in mountain climbing. Skiing down a mountain, yes please. Climbing up a mountain. No fucking way.

My point is obvious: not everyone dreams about the same thing so maybe there’s a reason for why we have certain dreams, desires or callings in life: because that’s what we are supposed to do! We dream about it, yearn for it, desire it because we are supposed to have it!  Me! Me me me me me is supposed to be doing this because that’s what fulfills my hear the most!  And the truth is is that if I didn’t do my hearts calling, I would be cheating God so to speak, or cheating my life; turning my back on that which gives me the most fire and most fulfillment.

So thank you Tom Jackson for reminding me of “Me.”

More coming…